Teelena coughed and began to come-to. Her horrible wound bled also, but she was not as bad as her husband. She crawled to him, crying and yelling, “Damn it, Husband! Don’t you dare leave me now! I’ll find you in the afterlife and kick your ass!”
Bruno saw her and knew she would need help as well. She bled nearly as bad as Grognor.
“Concentrate!” Eugene yelled.
Grognor coughed and opened his eyes.
Brendon knelt down to the mortally wounded Victoria as several arrows pierced his side. Victoria’s division was quickly closing the distance. He fought through the pain and raised her head, exposing her neck. “Go to the afterlife, knowing you’ve betrayed your race, whore.”
He put the razor sharp blade against her neck as she suddenly moved, shoving his own sword up through his torso. It pierced through his stomach, up through his heart, and out his shoulder. He stumbled back, gasping for breath as the dagger fell to the ground.
She fell forward, saying, “Go to Hell, traitor!” Her life quickly faded away.
Her division rushed Brendon, assured he was dead, and checked on their dead leader. They screamed in rage, and then turned to rush the other traitors. They were stopped short by the Stone Children.
Grognor saw the whole thing and looked up at his wife as Bruno and Eugene began working on her. He rose up and crawled to her side. “I love you, Wife.”
She smiled up at him. “I love you, too, Husband. Don’t you ever scare me like that again, asshole.” She punched him in the nose.
He smiled and kissed her.
As Victoria and Brendon died, the battle stopped. Brendon’s co-conspirators, what was left of them, dropped their weapons and surrendered to the Stone Children. The rest of the division moved away, incredulous.
Grognor and Teelena, now mostly healed, went over to Brendon and Victoria.
“Bruno, can you save her?” Teelena asked.
“No, it’s too late. Her spirit has already left her body, and that wound…well, it’s worse than Grognor’s. There’s no way we could have healed that.” He looked at Grognor. “Damn, that was a close one, Sire.” He looked over at Eugene. “Nice work, I couldn’t have saved him without your help.”
Eugene nodded. “Nor I. We work well together.”
Teelena and Grognor knelt down next to Victoria’s body as a crowd formed around them. Grognor turned her over on her back. Her open eyes looked lifelessly up at the sky, anger still on her face. Teelena reached down and shut them, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“What a waste,” Bruno said.
“Such a valiant warrior, and a good soul. We’ll miss you, Victoria,” Grognor said. “Look at that wound, right through the heart. She hung on just long enough to take Brendon down. She was dead before she scored the last blow.”
Eugene stood back and looked up at everyone. “This was my fault, all of it. Me and big mouth.” He hung his head down in shame.
Bruno patted him on the shoulder. “No, Eugene, this would have happened one way or another. It was obvious he knew. It was just a matter of time. Place the blame where it belongs.” He motioned to Brendon’s lifeless body.
Eugene nodded.
“Prepare a funeral detail immediately,” Grognor said, to everyone’s astonishment. “I know what I said, but…it must be done. We…I…owe her that.”
Grognor then got up and walked to the treacherous co-conspirators. They were all on their knees with their hands on their heads. A circle of warriors watched them closely with weapons drawn, Victoria’s division ready to tear them apart.
“What shall we do with you?” Grognor asked.
There was no response, just looks of hatred coming from them.
Grognor looked up at Victoria’s division and the Stone Children holding them back. “Execute them. Execute these traitors immediately.” He turned and walked toward the others, not caring to see the execution or cast his gaze upon the traitors again. “Put Brendon’s body with them and hang their worthless corpses from the trees,” he ordered, angrily.
The brutality of the traitors’ deaths at the hands of Victoria’s division cannot be humanely described. The screams echoed across the mountains.
A short while later, the funeral pyre was set high above the ground, with General Victoria’s body beautifully lying on top. She was cleaned up so that she looked like she was simply taking a nap.
“I killed her father during the wars,” Grognor began as he addressed everyone. “She had vowed vengeance, but let that go in the interest of peace. Mind you, she wasn’t just putting it on hold because of our mutual enemy. She genuinely wanted peace, regardless of what happened. Imagine. Peace was truly more important to her than vengeance.”
He slowly shook his head from side to side and paused for a moment. An overwhelming feeling of grief welled up inside him. He looked down at Teelena, who was already crying.
The Emperor continued, not the form of a deadly warrior, more of a person mourning a close friend, “When we were recovering from the battle with the Drakmids, she challenged my disapproval of the funerals going on. She said, ‘humans need this.’ Well, I’ve discovered a deeper truth to her words, a truth I’ll keep with me the rest of my life. We all need to grieve. It’s not just a human thing…” he paused as tears rolled down his face. He heaved just a bit from the emotional pain. He was crying fully now. “We all…need to grieve. She was truly a good soul, and this world is a bit darker without her. If there are indeed benevolent gods and an afterlife, then surely she resides with them in paradise. Goodbye, Victoria….respected fellow warrior…friend.” He nodded to Bruno, who lowered the torch. The funeral pyre was set. The not-so-fierce Emperor then went to his beloved, and cried in her arms.
Chapter 14
They wasted no time getting underway. Grognor took Victoria’s sword as his own, knowing she had no family to leave it to. Her division and what was left of Brendon’s were assigned to General Lucas.
The army traveled along with Brendon, Teelena and the rest of the leaders in front. Bruno and the Stone Children walked ahead. Bruno fell back a bit to fall in line with Grognor.
“Sire,” Bruno said as he walked alongside the horse-mounted Grognor, “I’ve been wracking my mind trying to figure out what went wrong.”
“I just really don’t care, Bruno.”
“Well, I guess not. But, there’s something missing from the note we forged.”
“I said I don’t care.”
“Just, please indulge me. We could actually still make this work, from the other side.”
Grognor tried to ignore him, looking straight ahead.
“What is it, Bruno?” Teelena asked.
“In Brendon’s note to Daemon, he mentioned a position. Where we were, where we were headed. I thought this was a bit redundant when I first read the note, since Daemon already knew the plan, but then I realized; this was a critical part of the note. They always mention their position. We didn’t mention where Daemon supposedly was.”
Grognor glanced over at him, but said nothing.
“So,” Teelena started, “you think we can still find out who’s behind this, and who’s involved?”
“Yea, probably. If we can get the language right.”
Grognor looked over at him, apparently annoyed. “This is bullshit.”
“Husband?” Teelena looked at him.
“You, Bruno…or Michael, whatever. You’re powerful beyond anything we’ve seen. I suspect you could take down the metallic dragons without a second thought, couldn’t you?”
Bruno turned away, ashamed and knowing where this was going.
Grognor raised his hand, stopping the caravan. He looked down at Bruno with disdain. “You’re a god, Bruno.”
“No, I’m an immortal—”
“Bullshit! You can become anything, you cannot be harmed, and you will never die. You have healing talents, and who knows what else! You’re a damned god, and you’re acting like a mortal. You could have easily prevented the fight wit
h Victoria. You could have stepped in at any point.”
“Well, I—”
“I don’t know what kind of screwed-up game you and your kind are playing here, but I won’t have it. From this point forward, you’ll not be restricting yourself like you’re a damned mortal!”
“Sire, Just—”
“What other talents do you have? Can you teleport? Can you speak to others with your mental talents? What?”
Bruno prostrated himself to the Emperor. “Yes, Sire. I can do all those things, but magic is not available on this world, or I could do more. There hasn’t been an energy breach big enough to allow it.”
Grognor didn’t understand some of what he said, but Delvin said, “Oh, right!” seemingly understanding perfectly.
“Then,” Grognor said, “you’ll leave us to continue this trek, with your comrades guiding us. You will contact Deccon, let him know what’s happened, and join him. Together you two will find out what the hell is going on, and report back. Is that clear?!”
“It’s not that simple, Emper—”
“You could kill me with no hesitation if you wanted to, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, Sire but I would never—”
“That you haven’t means you are a good god. You have put yourself at my service, and goddamit!” he screamed. “You will be!”
Bruno decided not to argue the ‘god’ part, and simply nodded. “Yes, Sire.”
“We won’t be using that stupid mechanical bird. We’ll be using you, Bruno. Go, carry out your orders!”
Bruno nodded and closed his eyes, concentrating on Deccon’s mind. “Deccon, can you hear me?” he called out to him telepathically.
“Bruno? Yes, of course. It’s nice to hear your thoughts again. Why haven’t you done so before, old friend?”
“Give me an image of your surroundings.”
“Sure, but why? You can’t teleport?”
“Yes, actually I can. Long story, but I learned how. Just do it, we need to talk in person.”
[2]
“Um, ok. Wow, ok…this is where we are.” Deccon sent a mental image of the encampment with the war machines trudging along.
“Got it. Be there in a sec.” Bruno looked up at Grognor. “Got him, I’ll see you shortly, Sire.”
Grognor nodded grimly and motioned for the caravan to continue. Bruno concentrated. The space around him seemed to collapse. He disappeared.
“Wow! That’s kind of like when the dragons do it,” Teelena said.
Grognor nodded, a single tear rolling down his cheek.
Deccon walked alongside the war machines and the rest of the army on the River Valley road. Suddenly, space warped and expanded, revealing Bruno. Those nearby jumped back a bit, startled.
“Deccon, we need to talk in private,” Bruno said.
The two of them walked a bit away from the group.
“What’s wrong, Michael, I’m sorry, I mean Bruno?”
“We found a traitor, Brendon and several of his division.”
“Traitor?”
“He’s been working with at least one person here, Daemon.”
Deccon seemed a bit shocked. “Daemon? But, he’s an elven elder?”
“There’s probably a network. They were sending messages back and forth using a mechanical bird. They mention an ambiguous ‘She’ as their leader.”
“Damn. So, what of Brendon?”
“He and General Victoria had it out. They were both killed, and Brendon’s co-conspirators were executed.”
“Damn. Then, we need to find out who Daemon’s working with. What if all the elves are involved? They’ve never been too keen on our idea of peace and harmony with all races.”
“Well, I have an idea…”
“Has there been any word yet?” the Black Queen asked. She sat on her throne, adorned with jewels and fine garments, looking very much like a Queen.
The High General knelt before her. “Not yet, your Majesty. We suspect there’s been a compromise.”
“It’s entirely possible. How’s the radio coming along?” She stood up with the gracious help of her favorite servant, Jennifer.
“The techs say it should be ready soon. Something about neutralizing the tubes.”
“Good, let me know when they contact our operative in Deepforge. I hate being in the dark.”
“Yes, your Majesty.” He exited hastily.
“Sire, I’m Cray, Bruno’s second in command,” the Stone Child introduced himself.
Grognor nodded. “How’s the trail look?”
“Well, It’s a bit hard to say. For us it’s an easy trek, but for you and yours it may be difficult. There’s also a storm coming. Looks like a late winter storm, the last of the year.”
“What will it mean for us?”
“Well, Sire, as you can see, the ground and the lower snow caps have started to thaw with the warmer spring weather. This will all be reversed with this coming storm. The ground will freeze, there will be heavy snow, and temperatures will drop drastically.”
“We’re mountain dwarves, this isn’t an issue.”
“Yes, Sire, but there are other races here, you need to watch them closely. Travel will slow down as well. We’ll probably lose a day as the storm passes through.”
“That still puts us ahead. Thank you for your report, continue on.”
“Yes, Sire.” Cray bowed and continued on ahead.
Grognor looked back at the army, and then over to Teelena. “We need to get food. The nights may be a bit too harsh for the humans and halflings.”
She nodded and looked over at Eugene. “Send out your hunters and take down as many stags as you can before nightfall. There’s a storm coming.”
“Yes, my Lady,” Eugene said. He motioned to several of his people, and they disbursed into the forest.
Daemon stepped away from the group a bit and looked through his backpack. He pulled out his spare mechanical bird, and quickly assembled it. Just before he had it completely put together, he heard someone approaching behind him.
“Has anyone seen Daemon?” Alva asked.
“He went out to relieve himself, I think,” Kalentoff said.
“Look, is that them?” Dove pointed as she straightened out her camping supplies.
The elves looked up at the cloud of dust rising in the east. Unseen to them, a mechanical bird flew behind them toward the west.
Bōddy nodded. “Yea, that’s got to be them. Let’s step into the forest and wait, just in case.”
Daemon emerged from the forest and saw them all looking east. “Finally. I can’t believe how slow they are.”
They all stepped just barely out of sight, which for anyone else meant they disappeared completely. The thick green forest north of the road concealed them perfectly.
Deccon was the first to be seen, walking along in front of the war machine division. Behind him, the massive rolling structures of war slowly approached. As they came parallel to where the elves waited, Deccon stopped the procession.
“We’ll make came here,” he announced. He knew the elves were out there waiting.
Moments later, the elves came out of the forest to greet them. Daemon met Deccon’s eyes and locked on them for a short moment before turning away. He quickly made himself busy helping to set camp for the weary travelers.
Selena scrambled to help reload the magma launchers as the dragons continued hitting the Deepforge wall with various forms of breath weapon. The acid attacks were doing the most damage. Vella came to her side and helped as best she could.
“The metallics are getting their asses handed to them,” Vella said as she and several dwarves loaded up a large scoop of molten rock with the industrial crane, their heat shield suits steaming.
Most of them were accustomed to the intense heat, especially the forgers and metalsmiths. Vella, however, had a rough time of it. Her elven form was not suited for this kind of thing, and because of the kind of dragon she was, working in the kind of heat was tough indeed. She had to
resist blowing a breath weapon of cold. Suddenly, she got a telepathic message from her beloved Deccon and stopped what she was doing. The information conveyed to her was startling and unbelievable. She acknowledged receipt and continued working normally as not to arouse suspicion. She now knew who the inside person was, the traitor of Deepforge. Incredulous at the news, it took her several moments to get over it and continue on.
Selena saw her distress, as she was not completely successful at hiding the shock. “Vella, is everything alright?”
Vella looked at her as she operated the guiding tongs. “Yea…everything is…just fine, Selena. As I was saying, I don’t know how long we’re going to hold them off. I just wish I could be out there fighting, but I have strict orders from Bahamlo. I’m not to leave the citadel.”
Selena smiled. “Males, always wanting to protect us, huh?”
“Yea, sometimes it gets a bit…old.” Vella smiled and looked around at all the dwarves working as hard as they could to load up the magma launchers. “They’re getting too hot, we’re not going to be able to keep this up much longer.”
At that point, a large explosion was heard coming from the Great Door.
“They’ve breached! Prepare for hand-to-hand!” someone yelled.
“Your Majesty, we have Deepforge on the radio,” the communications officer reported, kneeling before her.
“Excellent! It’s about damn time,” the Black Queen said. She put out her delicate hand, and Jennifer gently guided her off the throne as if she was as delicate as she seemed. Together they walked hand-in-hand to the radio room.
The radio room was a small closet-sized room. Inside were various ancient looking radios with Earth markings on them and testing devices of different types. A twentieth century amateur radio operator from Earth would have easily recognized each device. The man operating the devices had to learn the art of tuning them the hard way, having burned out several in the process. The radios and various equipment sat on shelves stacked high, with wires running across and attaching to each. The smell of the room was of old radios and ozone. One of the radios hummed with static and glowed from the vacuum tubes inside and the lighted displays on the front, denoting unknown numbers. Jerry Collins, the radio operator, was the only one who could decipher what they meant.
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